The Federal Government is set to introduce changes to the way painkillers containing codeine are sold over the counter.

But health professionals say the amendments, due to come into force within a month, will do little to fix the problems which sparked concern in the first place.

It's not a pretty picture: addicts taking up to 80 Nurofen Plus tablets a day, crushing the opiates and injecting them; people with anxiety and depression, dependent on codeine's euphoric affects; and chronic pain sufferers needing more and more of the drug to get relief.

Experts say these substance abuse issues are on the rise. In October last year they prompted the national drugs and poisons committee to reschedule all combination analgesics containing codeine.

Effectively, the May 1 changes will see products like Nurofen Plus, Panadeine and Panadeine Extra in smaller pack sizes and with smaller doses of codeine. A pharmacist must also be involved at every sale to record the customer's details.

Addiction and pain medicine physician Dr Christian Rowan says while limiting access to codeine medication is an initial step, it will be redundant if left to work in isolation.

He says over the past few years there has been a rise in the number of people abusing the substance.

"There seems to be growing evidence that numbers of people in the community are obtaining considerable quantities of those tablets and taking them on a daily basis... and significantly so that we are concerned from a collegial perspective," he said.

"I've certainly treated people who have been taking 60 to 80 of those tablets per day. Sometimes they've been accessing them from different pharmacies, but sometimes they've been accessing them from the one pharmacy.

"That's led to adverse physical consequences, not only because of the addictive nature of codeine but from the anti-inflammatory side of things."

Codeine is typically used in combination with the anti-inflammatory agent ibuprofen.

Dr Rowan says some people are taking enough tablets to get an equivalent dose of morphine.

"Sometimes they're consuming the medication orally and other times they're crushing it and injecting it," he said.

Massive loopholes

But it seems next month's changes will do little to stop people from misusing codeine analgesics.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia says the new legislation will be more a nuisance than anything.

"The industry is frustrated because we are talking about a very, very small number of people - something like one in 10,000 people - who are abusing codeine, but the committee felt that was enough to warrant the decision," the guild's national director, Kos Sclavos, said.

"At the end of the day if somebody is abusing these products they're going to go from pharmacy to pharmacy and just make more visits.

"This is not going to address the problem it is just going to inconvenience 3 million people a year who take codeine products at some stage or another."

Mr Sclavos says real-time recording, which is currently in place for pseudoephedrine purchases, would prevent people from chemist hopping to obtain large amounts of codeine. But this system will not be part of the May 1 changes.

"The real-time database makes sure that if somebody went to the pharmacy down the road 20 minutes ago and then came to mine, it says this item has been purchased 20 minutes ago and not to supply this medication," he said.

"People coming off addictive cycles who used to go to eight pharmacies, now they'll just have to go to 20 because of the smaller pack size."

But he says the guild is primarily concerned about the impact the changes will have on the majority of Australians who use codeine appropriately.

"Patients who are legitimately and correctly using it, especially when it comes to families or elderly couples, they're going to have to send different members of the family in because a five-day supply for a husband and wife now becomes a two-and-a-half day supply," he said.

"It's a shame that a very small number of patients are going to create such an inconvenience for the majority of patients who use these products appropriately."

Under the current state and territory laws, customers can buy packs of 96 tablets. But as of May 1, they will only be able to buy 30 tablets in a six per day pack and 40 tablets in an eight per day pack.

This means the duration of treatment will not exceed five days, with a limited maximum dose of 12 milligrams of codeine.

Driving factors

Dr Rowan agrees the schedule changes will not stop people pharmacy hopping to get their fix, and says an effective monitoring system must be implemented for a difference to be made.

"The pharmacy guild is right in that just restricting access at an individual pharmacy won't solve the problem, but having said that if we've got the problem out there that has to be part of the solution," he said.

He says once an effective monitoring system is in place, the reasons behind substance addiction and abuse also need to be addressed.

"All of these things need to be put in place, you need to limit the access, you need to have the monitoring, and then look at what the drivers are out there that need to be addressed," he said.

"For some people it is a cheaper way of accessing a drug to actually abuse, for other people it's inadequate pain control, which then leads to an escalating situation where they just consume more and more and it gets out of hand.

"Then there's the euphoric effect that comes with these medications... some people are using that to treat anxiety or depressive symptoms or post-traumatic stress disorders."

Dr Rowan says prevention funding must be increased if codeine addiction, as well as addiction at a broader level, is to be tackled.

"We only spend a fraction of money on treatment and rehabilitation when it comes to people with substance disorders and that's one of the big gaps in the health system," he said.

"There are billions of dollars spent on treating the consequences... and all of that costs a significant amount of money in the system, but there is not a huge investment in the front end to try to prevent all of that occurring."

The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee says it felt restricting the duration of treatment to no more than five days would balance the access needs of legitimate users with the need to address the risks of harm from these products through misuse or abuse.